Smmenen makes it to the MTG Invitational

[Artowis]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/mi07/voting

R&D's pick. Grats. Represent! :laugh:

[NANTUKO_SHADY]

Wow. Should be pretty interesting. Grats Steve.

[Citrus-God]

<3 Menendian....

Go bash them with your TEPS, or w/e Legacy deck your gonna play!

[Smmenen]

Thank you!

I want to make it clear that your support, not just Vintage, but ALL Eternal players, was absolutely critical to this.

I will work hard and try my very best to represent this community with honor and distinction.

If I need testing help from the Ohio/MI/PA area, I may need to call some of you up :)


Thanks again,

Stephen

[Bardo]

Wow, awesome. Well done Stephen!

[Citrus-God]

Wow, awesome. Well done Stephen!

If he finally broke the Meandeck curse, I'm sure he'd be able to go bash face at the Invitational.

[frogboy]

I hope you go 0-X.




What, it's the curse of the Invitational. Last place wins a Pro Tour in the next year.

[C.P.]

Awesome, congratulations.

[SpikeyMikey]

/wrists

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

I've gradually revised my opinion of Smennen from "complete prick" to "possibly okay guy, sometimes".

And in that spirit, I extend to you the very warmest of sort of congratulations, I guess.

[Ebinsugewa]

Well put, Jack.

[DeathwingZERO]

I hope when you play all the "Vintage Only" cards, you hold them out to their faces so they can read them.

Because you know, pros have no clue wtf anything in Vintage is. They'll need to read it to see if it's worth their Mana Leak, LAWL

[Nihil Credo]

Congratulations Smenny!

Whatever sort of Vintage-y card you submit, may I suggest that you suggest a lawyer-y flavour? "Soul-Eater Attorney" or the like?

[Nightmare]

Steve, I've been trying to contact you. IM me or email me when you get a chance.

Congrats dude!

[Di]

Congrats duder! Good luck man, we're backing you here.

Any chance you can fill us in on what your card might look like?

[Peter_Rotten]

Congrats. It's nice to see you getting a warm reception here considering a bit of a contentious past between you and some of this site's members.

The best of luck.

[Citrus-God]

Congrats duder! Good luck man, we're backing you here.

Any chance you can fill us in on what your card might look like?

Yea... umm... what this guy said, I'm a little curious too.

[zulander]

Way to jump the gun, now he's jinxed and won't win the event. GFG.

[Nightmare]

Way to jump the gun, now he's jinxed and won't win the event. GFG.
If he gets last place, he wins a pro tour next season. The curse works both ways.

[Slay]

I generally don't care about Smmenen at all, but I think it's going to be really, really cool to see what happens to one of the best Vintage players when he's paired up against the actual best players in the world.
-Slay

[Smmenen]

I'm also betting that my performance at Grand Prix: Columbus, in the LEGACY format, had something to do with with this.... (getting 21st out of 885).

Thanks again!!!!!

Stephen

[Nightmare]

I'm also betting that my performance at Grand Prix: Columbus, in the LEGACY format, had something to do with with this.... (getting 21st out of 885).

Thanks again!!!!!

Stephen
Come now. You know that format wasn't Legacy...

[zulander]

I'm also betting that my playing FLASH at Grand Prix: FLASH, in the FLASH format, had something to do with with this.... (getting 21st out of 885).


Fixed.

[Ewokslayer]

But is was a nice Flash deck.

[zulander]

Lol every deck that played flash was a nice flash deck. I do give him props for playing a better flash deck though.

[Citrus-God]

But is was a nice Flash deck.

It was a fun format. Tons better than now, IMO. It was nerve wrecking, and intense. It was skill intensive too. Oh, how I loved that format....

[Ewokslayer]

It was a fun format. Tons better than now, IMO. It was nerve wrecking, and intense. It was skill intensive too. Oh, how I loved that format....

I guess tapping 2 mana and putting a whole bunch of cards in the graveyard could be described as a skill.

[Nightmare]

I guess tapping 2 mana and putting a whole bunch of cards in the graveyard could be described as a skill.

As opposed to now, where I'm tapping 3 mana and putting a whole bunch of cards into the graveyard...

[Ewokslayer]

As opposed to now, where I'm tapping 3 mana and putting a whole bunch of cards into the graveyard...

3 > 2 isn't it?

Are you sure you went to Clarkson?

[Citrus-God]

I guess tapping 2 mana and putting a whole bunch of cards in the graveyard could be described as a skill.

In short, your tapped out, expect to be fucked.

Of course, it's easy, but when it's Flash-on-Flash, it's the better player who wins.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

In short, your tapped out, expect to be fucked.

Of course, it's easy, but when it's Flash-on-Flash, it's the better player who wins.

Unless the worse player draws a more broken hand, of course.


Flash.format never felt that skill intensive to me. It felt like when I played against other Flash decks, they just got better hands than me. I never got this turn two win with Force back up bullshit, I don't know what everyone else was doing right.

[Ewokslayer]

Unless the worse player draws a more broken hand, of course.


Flash.format never felt that skill intensive to me. It felt like when I played against other Flash decks, they just got better hands than me. I never got this turn two win with Force back up bullshit, I don't know what everyone else was doing right.

We didn't play Recoil for one. :smile:

[Citrus-God]

Unless the worse player draws a more broken hand, of course.

I hate it when that happens.


Flash.format never felt that skill intensive to me. It felt like when I played against other Flash decks, they just got better hands than me. I never got this turn two win with Force back up bullshit, I don't know what everyone else was doing right.ehh... I didnt play the Flash format much, but I have played some mirrors. I personally wouldnt dislike the format, but it certainly did entertain me in the long run...

[Nightmare]

I lost both mirrors I played in Columbus. The first, I lost game 3 because I could not draw a Worldly or Protean Hulk. The second, I lost game three because I drew all 4 Protean Hulks, and no Flash/tutor.

That format was fun for a month, but any longer would have sucked.

Edit - Back on topic, plz.

[Di]

The first, I lost game 3 because I could not draw a Worldly or Protean Hulk.

Just to note, but we never played Worldly Tutor. Our lists were UBr, remember?

Ok, back on topic.

[Phantom]

Can someone explain exactly what this is? What I understand so far (I think) is that a bunch of people get invited, compete, possibly at Magic (what format?) and the winner gets to design a card. Is there a list of cards that have previously been designed? I'm pretty sure I know 3 (Meddling Mage, Shadowmage infiltrator, Rakdos Guildmage).

Any help for someone who'e too lazy to look for info would be appreciated.

[zulander]

Dark Confidant, and rootwater theif are the others that come to mind.

[UrDraco]

Olle Råde-Sylvan Safekeeper
Darwin Kastle-Avalanche Riders
Mike Long-Rootwater Thief
Chris Pikula-Meddling Mage
Jon Finkel-Shadowmage Infiltrator
Kai Budde-Voidmage Prodigy
Jens Thoren-Solemn Simulacrum
Bob Maher-Dark Confidant
Terry Soh-Rakdos Augermage
Antoine Ruel-Bibi Sleur



Inspired by the invitational-Chalice of the Void,
Tsuyoshi Fujita-Gemstone Caverns and maybe more, I dunno

[Bane of the Living]

Congrats man! Now go design the answer to Leyline of the Void!!

[DrJones]

Avatar of Serra was the first one, but it bore no resemblance whatsoever to the awfully overpowered card that the winner submitted.

[Nantuko88]

Congrats! That being:

Kick their A#% Sea Bass!!!

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Avatar of Serra was the first one, but it bore no resemblance whatsoever to the awfully overpowered card that the winner submitted.

Where'd you hear that? It definitely wasn't. Avalanche Riders was the first printed, although technically Sylvan Safekeeper was the first won. Serra Avatar has no relation to the Invitational I've ever heard of.

[Lego]

Congrats Smmenen! I now have two requests:

1) Submit an awesome card useful in Legacy (and of course Vintage, I'm sure)
2) Win, so said awesome card becomes a Legacy staple

[DrJones]

Where'd you hear that? It definitely wasn't. Avalanche Riders was the first printed, although technically Sylvan Safekeeper was the first won. Serra Avatar has no relation to the Invitational I've ever heard of.According to issue #20 of Urza Magazine (Jan 1999), Serra Avatar was submitted by 1996 World Champion, Tom Chanpheng. The card had protection from black and its power and toughness worked like the promo 1996 World Champion, so either he got inspired by his own card, or the magazine messed up the news.

According to the magazine, the Urza's Saga playtesters found the card too strong and removed the protection from black, changed power/toughness to its owner', and added a clause to avoid reanimation tricks. It doesn't say when it was submitted, but it says that Olle Rade's card was so stupid that it had to be postponed to no foreseeable future. (As a coincidence, Tom Chanpheng got to play on the 1997 invitational that Olle Rade won, and I recall reading somewhere that he also wanted to submit a card because he hadn't got the chance when he won last year).

So, this old magazine suggests that the first printed card was Serra Avatar. After doing some research on the old usenet archives, I've found people from that magazine talking about the card, and I've found this:

"Actually, beleive it or not, this card is almost certainly NOT a hoax.
Why? In the Duelist, Mark Rosewater said that one of the cards would be
similar to the 1996 World Champion Card. Of course, the 1996 World
Champion Card had power and toughness equal to your life total. Sounds a
lot like the Serra Avatar, doesn't it?

-Elliot Fertik"

So, it seems that they got all their info from The Duelist.

[DeathwingZERO]

That's funny, because I remember that the Olle Rade card was so broken they had to tone it down to the watered down garbage it is now. I remember hearing back when it was first sent in that they had no idea how to balance it correctly at that time, which is why it was delayed.

It's weird that Serra Avatar was supposedly done by the 1996 World Champion, as I remember hearing that the ability was so liked that's what caused the R&D team from Saga to actually make it. Never heard anything about it being submitted.

[DrJones]

Olle Rade actually submitted two cards before finally submitting Sylvan Safekeeper. The first one was:
World of Bums - R
Enchant World.A totally retarded red enchant world without text.

The second one was a counterspell that everytime it resolved, it returned back to the top of its owner library. Which is also retarded.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/211

The very first invitational was won by Olle. I'm sure that prior to that, people outside R&D had influenced the design of cards in some way, but that's really not at all the same thing- they didn't directly design the card, it doesn't bear their mug, etc....

In this case it's even possible that someone else had the idea of coppying the 1996 World Champion ability onto another card. These things happen. Hell, I submitted a card that was identical to Lightning Helix to tMD a year before Ravnica came out. And then everyone in the card creation forum pointed and laughed and said that it was far too powerful to be printed and a black ability anyway.